Yanis Varoufakis abruptly quit his role as Greek finance minister this morning. The announcement came within hours of a referendum in which Greeks roundly backed the position of his Syriza party. Just over 61% of voters rejected a bailout proposal from Greece’s creditors, which the outspoken Varoufakis said amounted to “terrorism” on the eve of the vote.
The finance minister explained the ouster on his personal blog, saying that he was ”made aware of a certain preference” among creditors for him not to be involved with future financial aid discussions. His statement strongly hints that prime minister Alexis Tsipras prefers to restart the stalled bailout negotiations without him. “I consider it my duty to help Alexis Tsipras exploit, as he sees fit, the capital that the Greek people granted us through yesterday’s referendum,” Varoufakis wrote.
Before yesterday’s vote, Varoufakis said he would resign if the Greek people voted “yes” to creditors’ demands for more austerity in return for extra bailout money. But now it’s clear that his days as minister were numbered, regardless of the outcome. He was already sidelined somewhat in April, when the government charged deputy foreign minister Euclid Tsakalotos as the point man in negotiations with lenders.
Within days of Syriza’s sweeping election victory in January, Varoufakis began clashing with Greece’s creditors. After a testy meeting with his German counterpart in February, Varoufakis said that the two “didn’t even agree to disagree.” Other officials from Greece’s biggest creditors complained that the economist—who describes himself as an “erratic Marxist“—spent more time lecturing his counterparts than negotiating with them.
Tsipras says that the decisive referendum result will give him more bargaining power in talks with European creditors, but with lenders in a foul mood and Greek banks dangerously close to running out of money, Greece’s place in the euro zone is looking shaky. But always confident in his own convictions, Varoufakis is showing little regret about his cameo in the Greek bailout saga.
“I shall wear the creditors’ loathing with pride,” he said.